The two Texas Education Agency conservators appointed to oversee the Socorro Independent School District say their time with El Paso’s second-largest school district could end next spring.
TEA conservators Andrew Kim and Michael Hinojosa said they expect to leave SISD next year, once the district completes the “exit criteria” set by the conservators and prepares its budget for the next school year.
“I don’t think we would be gone before February, and I’ll be shocked if we’re around at the start of the next school year. But you never know. A lot of things could happen in that time period,” Hinojosa said.
Both were appointed by the TEA in April 2024 to oversee SISD after an investigation found the district was fraught with leadership issues and had improperly graduated students in 2019. Conservators are expected to help implement and sustain improvements within two years of placement, according to the state education agency.
Kim and Hinojosa said the district has already met three out of four exit criteria requirements, including correcting the credit issues that led to the improper graduations, selecting a permanent superintendent and addressing the “board’s behavior.”
Now the district needs to develop a customer service program meant to improve its relationship with community members and more efficiently resolve their issues.
“One of the things we were a little surprised about is that there was not as much community engagement as we’re accustomed to. The community was supportive, but they weren’t really engaged,” Hinojosa said. “The main customers are the kids, but then the staff are the secondary customers and the community are the tertiary customers. And, so, how do you engage with them? How do you treat them? How do you interact with them?”
The conservators also noted their departure date may hinge on whether SISD voters on Tuesday approve a tax rate proposition that could generate up to $49.2 million a year. The voter-approval tax ratification election, or VATRE, asks voters to allow the district to increase its tax rate beyond what’s allowed by law, though the increase would be mostly offset by a state proposition to increase homeowner’s school tax exemption – a measure also on Tuesday’s ballot.
VOTER GUDE: SISD, Tornillo ISD tax rates, state propositions on Nov. 4, 2025, election ballot
The district plans to use most of those funds to rebuild its savings, which have dwindled after several years of operating on a budget deficit.
“They got breathing room if the community supports them. If they don’t, they won’t have much breathing room,” Hinojosa said about the budget.
SISD Superintendent James Vasquez said Kim and Hinojosa have provided support during one of the most challenging times in the district’s history.
“I especially appreciate their guidance and counsel during my time as interim and now as superintendent of our great district. Socorro ISD has made remarkable progress during their tenure and continues to move forward with stability, accountability and student achievement at the forefront,” Vasquez said in a statement.
Rosie Perez, president of the West Texas Alliance, a union representing SISD employees, said her members had trepidations about the conservators when they first arrived.
“At first it was scary, just based on the situation that the district was in at that time, and based on history when TEA has had to get involved in the school districts,” Perez said. “However, I feel, and my members feel, that it has been pleasantly surprising. It has really gotten the district back on track. The focus has been very strategic in helping to build the trust from the community, the trust from the employees, and to really hone in on some of the past mistakes and avoid the same mistakes.”
Socorro ISD is required to pay the conservators $125 an hour for their work, plus travel expenses. The district did not immediately provide how much it has paid or plans to pay by the completion of the conservatorship.
Budget preparations and health plan costs
Kim said SISD resolved the issues that led to improper graduations on its own, allowing the conservators to review other aspects of the district, including its finances.
They found that SISD was inadequately managing its cash flow, forcing it to take out loans to cover its expenses, and adopted the wrong tax rate, leading some homeowners to be overcharged on their 2024 tax bill. Those homeowners later received a reimbursement of their overcharges.
“Those are the two critical factors that I think were discovered right off the bat that could potentially cause a district to be in a very dire financial situation,” Kim said.
Kim and Hinojosa said they made sure the board had policies in place for adopting its yearly budget and tax rate.
“This is not about coming in and just correcting the issue and leaving, Rather, it’s about institutionalizing good practices, coaching great behaviors, hopefully that will sustain itself further, and beyond our conservatorship,” Kim said.
Before the conservators leave, the board will also need to review the district’s health care plan and potentially make changes that could raise the cost of employees’ deductibles and affect their take-home pay.
SISD’s health fund has been operating at a deficit for several years, meaning its expenses outpaced the revenue it received from employee deductibles.
At the end of the last fiscal year, the board adopted a series of budget amendments and transferred $8.8 million from its savings to its health fund to cover a deficit, according to a presentation given during a Sept. 8 board meeting.
During the meeting, SISD’s human resources director, Mario Carmona, said the district may need to transfer up to $12.5 million into its health fund at the end of the fiscal year.
One reason the cost has risen in recent years is due to increased use of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, used to treat diabetes, obesity and other health conditions, Carmona noted.
SISD reduced its healthcare plan contributions for 2025, resulting in drastic increases to the cost of some employees’ health insurance at the start of the year.
Now the district’s Employee Benefits Advisory Committee, tasked with giving input on the district’s health plan, recommended the district decrease the number of health plans it offers from two to three, increase rates for its base plan by $117 a month and encourage employees to switch to its Consumer Driven Health Plan, which comes with a lower monthly premium, but higher deductibles, according to the presentation.
The committee also recommended that the district use preventative care programs to reduce the need for GLP-1s.
Under their plan, the district will still need to use its savings to cover a $9.4 million deficit in its health fund in 2026, and will have a balanced budget by 2027 after the committee reevaluates the health plans.
Kim said the conservator’s role is to ensure the district is looking at all its options and “to encourage and nudge, perhaps to even make difficult decisions for the benefit of the district.”
“They have to really be thoughtful about the dollars that they have to use relative to the services they want to provide, and that can be very difficult to balance those things out,” he added.
SISD leadership changes
Before Kim and Hinojosa were appointed to oversee SISD, the previous board placed then-Superintendent Nate Carman on administrative leave in May 2024 after an audit found the district had awarded contracts to a company with which he had previously done business.
Carman, who was already preparing to leave the district for a new job in Arizona, denied wrongdoing and filed a grievance challenging the board’s decision.
The attorney who handled the grievance said Carman helped the company in question receive contracts, but that didn’t mean he “violated procurement law or did anything wrong.”
A month later, the board appointed Vasquez, who was then serving as deputy superintendent, as interim superintendent.
Kim and Hinojosa also oversaw other leadership changes, including trustees naming Vasquez as permanent superintendent and the appointment of David Solis as the district’s chief financial officer.
During the conservators’ oversight, two former trustees, Pablo Barrera and Ricardo “Richard’ Castellano, were arrested in May 2024 for allegedly targeting district employees at schools where they had personal connections. They pleaded not guilty and have denied the allegations. Both cases are still pending.
Both trustees were part of a recorded conversation in which they demeaned school employees and, at one point, Barrera said, “We’re school board gods.”
After the arrests, Barrera and Castellano were absent from their duties on the board for several months without offering a resignation. Their seats were left empty until after the May 2025 school board elections, when they were replaced by trustees Charles Smith and Manny Rodriguez. Neither Barrera nor Castellano ran for reelection.
To ensure SISD’s new leaders stay on track, Hinojosa said trustees and the superintendent are taking part in Lone Star Governance training offered by the TEA with the goal of improving student outcomes.
“As they go through training about what their role is, and they adopt student outcome goals, and they adopt all the things that are required to do. And they’ve made a lot of progress on that,” Hinojosa said.
As part of the training, the board will develop a superintendent evaluation process.
In the end, SISD’s future with TEA conservators will likely rely on the choices these leaders make in the coming months.
“I think with some new board members, they’re fiscal hawks, so, they’re asking the right questions. With the new CFO, they got a calendar, they got a plan, so, I feel a lot better. But effort is good, results are better. Can they get this thing to the finish line?” Hinojosa said.
The post Socorro ISD eyes end of TEA conservatorship, makes progress on exit criteria appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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